Dutch firm hopes to harness power of Bay of Fundy

A Dutch company hopes to capitalize on Nova Scotia's access to the Bay of Fundy and its potential to harness tidal currents to turn it into electricity.

For more than three years, officials from Tocardo International BV have been making regular visits to Nova Scotia, scouting areas and making connections with local companies with a view to one day turning the region into a hub for its North American tidal power aspirations.

“The opportunities in Nova Scotia are big for this industry,” Sander de Block, the company’s sales director, said in a telephone interview from Tocardo’s headquarters in the Netherlands.

De Block cited the Minas Passage as having the most interesting potential for tidal energy.

The company is developing and manufacturing in-stream tidal turbines for commercial use that can harness tidal currents and turn it into electricity.

It started with smaller 100-kilowatt and 200-kilowatt turbines that de Block refers to as “underwater windmills” that can be put on the ocean floor, a riverbed or attached to a bridge or another existing structure in fast-flowing water.

Tocardo now has a turbine connected to the Dutch electricity grid that produces energy for roughly 50 to 80 households.

But the company hopes one day to get bigger.

“What we all dream of is ocean floors and Bays of Fundys full with big, huge turbines that harvest energy on the seabed, but from a technology and also a market development point of view, that’s still a long way away,” de Block said.

In the meantime, he said the company will focus on selling turbines that can be placed in “less hostile waters,” areas that they have already identified in Nova Scotia.

“Basically they’re spread out all over Nova Scotia, with a big emphasis on ... what we call the inshore sites, at the south end of the Bay of Fundy ... and the Cape Breton area also poses several interesting sites due to the fact that there is flow, but they’re also close to people and close to infrastructure.”

In addition to looking for possible areas for its turbines, Tocardo has spent the last three years making connections with companies that could help in the assembly and installation of the turbines.

“We are not going to ship big chunks of steel over the ocean from the Netherlands. We are going to do that together with Nova Scotia companies,” de Block said.

His company has been working closely with project developer Fundy Tidal Inc. on being a supplier for them.

It’s for that reason that they entered Innovacorp’s inaugural Clean Tech Open. Although SABRTech Inc., a Halifax firm, won the competition, Tocardo made the final 10, and de Block said it was an invaluable experience.

“It helped us to start with in creating a base to get in touch with the right people in the region and also getting some assistance and help in formulating a business strategy and a business approach for us, as we have the intention to establish a base ... in North America.”

The provincial Community Feed-In Tariff program for ocean renewable energy is another good incentive for the company, he said.

Thomas Rankin, investment manager at Innovacorp, said he was first made aware of Tocardo’s interest in Nova Scotia last July and has been in contact ever since, working to establish a network of contacts for them.

“We’re not in any kind of formal investment conversations with them, but we’re certainly working with them to try and help them out,” Rankin said.

The company would first like to establish a commercial office in Halifax, followed by a technical support base to do the engineering work for installations and then gradually move to the co-ordinating process and maintenance work for the turbines.

But that won’t happen for some time.

“I’m obviously not going to open an office if I’m not going to sell turbines in Canada,” de Block said.

“It’s not a matter of getting (clients). We know we will be deploying turbines in Canada. It’s difficult for me to give timelines right not, but if I do a little bit of crystal ball watching, I would say that it would happen within the year.”